Dividing the Soul from the Spirit

Have you ever met someone whom you felt an instant connection with? Someone who just “got” you and believed in your dream? I have been blessed to know several people like that, and one of them was David Alsobrook. I found out recently that he passed away, so I thought it would be fitting to dedicate this post to him.

His message dovetailed with mine so beautifully, as you’ll see below. David had a knack for explaining deep truths with great clarity, and he had a life-transforming experience with God that left him in total peace for the last eight or so years of his life on Earth. I had grand plans for making him famous! We were going to do webinars together and eventually weekend seminars. I was going to drive sales of his books and do whatever else I could to get his beautiful message out and create a larger platform for him.

But it was not to be. His death is a great loss to me and, it feels like, to the world. We only knew each other by email and social media, and an occasional handwritten note, and only for a short time, but I remain determined to make him famous.

So, I’m going to quote from one of my favorite books, his final book, “You Can Be Free From Yourself: The Grace of Soul Transformation.” In these passages, he explains the difference between the spirit and the soul:

“You contact, commune and co-create with God here in your deepest part [your spirit]. This is where you know (rather than think, reason, imagine) and ‘the anointing he has given you, which is true and not a lie’ ‘teaches you all things’ and you ‘know all things’ here in your spirit (1 John 2:20,27).”

This is how he speaks of the soul:

“Your soul [is] the part of you where your human personality including intellect, volition and the origination of emotion are. This is the part of you where the sin-principled ego resides until it is dissolved.”

Well, that’s quite a difference! It’s clear that these two parts of us are very distinct. Your deepest part, the truest part of you, is not your personality; it’s your spirit. David goes on to say:

“It is your spirit where God initiates his work on you after he has taken up his residency in you in the person of the Holy Spirit. His work on you is primarily focused upon transforming your soul to the image of Christ in your spirit.”

This teaching finally made sense to me, and I hope it does for you as well, a verse that I always found poetic but didn’t really understand: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

Did you catch that? “…piercing to the division of soul and spirit”! Because they are not the same thing – and because they need dividing. As long as the soul and spirit are smooshed together (that’s a deep theological term), as is the natural state of all humans, that old-time concept of “mixture” is in effect. God’s pure Spirit has to wade through your soul, filtered through your personality, to get out, at which point the message or action is no longer pure. And wouldn’t it be awesome to not be in God’s way so that the unfiltered beauty and truth of God flow from you?

The word (logos, meaning expression of thought) of God can separate these two, and that’s a good thing. But that’s a supernatural occurrence, and not a common one, at least in my experience. Don’t get me wrong; I want that occurrence! That’s what happened to David Alsobrook, and that’s what I want for myself and for you and for all human beings. I’m not going to sit around waiting for it, though.

Instead, I will continue to ask God for this level of soul transformation WHILE I keep studying and putting into practice what I know of the Enneagram. Because the Enneagram gives me a blueprint of how my personality hijacks my true self, of how my soul smothers my spirit and all the good God stuff that’s in there. This knowledge helps me observe the difference between my soul and spirit, which helps begin to dissolve the power my soul has over me.

Another friend who’s gone home to Jesus used to say, “God heals two ways: fast and slow.” That’s how I think of soul transformation. I want the fast version, but I can’t make that happen. So I will pray for the fast version and stay on the slow route, using the tool of the Enneagram as a vital guide. I hope you’ll join me.

I recommend David’s book and Riso & Hudson’s “The Wisdom of the Enneagram” as good foundations. If you find yourself wanting a travelling companion, see my About page for ways I can help.

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